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Parliament has been asked to probe the controversial deal that led to the importation of 100 doctors from Cuba.

This even as the Senate Health committee initiated an inquiring into the draft policy that has triggered uproar among the health care specialists.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) termed the agreement as a ‘spectacular’ corruption that is yet to be exposed.

“If there is a particular corruption that is yet to be unraveled [then it is this one],” said KMPDU secretary general Devji Atellah.

According to Atellah, majority of the Kenyan doctors who were sent to Cuba, were forced to cut short their program and came back home due to frustrations and deplorable working conditions, adding that one doctor, passed on because of the frustrations.

“In essence the whole project of Kenya, Cuban agreement was not beneficial to the country,” he said.

He argued that 60 percent of the medics were family doctors – who were already locally available in the country – and 40 percent other medical specialists.

While appearing before the Senate’s Health committee chaired by Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago yesterday, Atellah asked the committee to order an audit on the exchange programme.

“We will ask the committee to actually ask for an audit on a cost and value analysis between that period and now,” he added.

According to Atellah, Kenyan taxpayers got a raw deal in the exchange programme that saw Kenya import 100 medical specialists from Cuba and Kenya export 50 medics on exchange.

Available locally

Atellah claimed that the government brought into the country specialists were readily available locally.

“We need to know what value has it (the programme) brought to the country and what expense has the country incurred,” he told the Jackson Mandago led committee.

Atellah further disclosed that the foreign doctors were paid up to four times salaries earned by local doctors. In 2 June 2018, Kenya imported 10 doctors from Cuba to bridge the doctors’ gap that existed at the time.

The medics were distributed to the 47 counties with each devolved units getting at one doctor.

“The aim of my ministry is to bring forward critical care physicians at that level – family physicians, physicists, oncologists and surgeons dealing with plastic reconstructive surgery, dealing with orthopaedic surgery and dealing with neurosurgery,” former Health CS Sicily Kariuki had said in 2018.

Atellah, who had appeared before the panel to shed light on the controversial policy by the Ministry of Health to stop Kenya health workers from working in other countries.

The SG disclosed the development of the policy was shrouded in secrecy with the Ministry only engaging the union at the tail-end of the process – validation stage.

“The reason why doctors are leaving the country to the tune of 40 or 50 percent is because of poor remuneration in this country,” Atellah said.